You say Potato
by laced-scrawl
Summary: All Draco wants is for Hermione to go to dinner with him. Asking her can't be that hard can it? "That's a lot of chocolate for just one person, Granger. Is someone suffering from a broken heart?"  Then again, it is Draco Malfoy! Please read and review!


**You Say Potato…**

**A/N: **Hey everyone! This is written for the 'Thank God You're Here!' challenge created by Dark is theMoon at the HPFC forum. It's light-hearted, funny, Easter-themed and purely Dramione! I hope you like it – Draco and Hermione are a little out of character. Please read and review! Happy Easter! xxx

**Rules:**

One character must say 'Thank God you're here!" to another.

At least 500 words

**Provided Location: **Diagon Alley

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything but the plot!

"That's a lot of chocolate for just one person, Granger. Is someone suffering from a broken heart?"

Hermione clenched her teeth and glared at him, trying to pour all of her irritation into the one piercing look. Draco Malfoy had been following her around for the past week and it was seriously starting to get on her nerves. He was everywhere she went! Book stores, coffee shops, even Gringotts! What irritated her most was that he never spoke more than a few sentences to her – none of which held any sort of bite. How dare he suddenly change his behaviour towards her and not explain why!

She'd spent the morning in a new chocolate shop in Diagon Alley, buying Easter Eggs for the children in the ward she worked at in St Mungos. It was her tradition and she took immense pleasure at seeing a bunch of small faces light up in excitement at the sight of a chocolate Easter Egg. After buying about twenty of them and somehow managing to assemble the bags in her arms appropriately, Hermione had walked down the road towards the Leaky Cauldron, intent on meeting up with Harry and Ron for a quick drink, before apparating over to the hospital. She'd never banked on tripping on a bit of uneven pavement and flying forward, her grip on the chocolate eggs quickly slipping away.

She'd squeezed her eyes shut and waited for her body to collide with the hard ground, but it never did. She registered a pair of arms around her waist and, in her subconscious, mistook them for Ron's or Harry's – not for any particular reason other than them always being the two people to save her. She took a moment to compose herself before taking a deep breath.

"Thank God you're here! I need some help with these and I-" she exclaimed, extracting herself and smiling gratefully up at the person she'd mistaken for her best friend, before feeling her smile fade away when realisation hit her…

"Wow Granger! Who knew you'd be so happy to see me?"

His familiar voice laced with mirth and arrogance had brought her crashing back down to earth. Instead of responding, she'd busied herself with collecting and then magically repairing the broken eggs and reassembling them in their bags. Of course, that took barely five minutes, and she was forced to stand up and meet his eyes that seemed to be laughing at her in their swirls of grey.

"They're not for me!" she exclaimed angrily, her blood boiling at his mocking tone. "And if you don't stop irritating me _you'll _be the one suffering from a broken body part!"

"I don't know what you mean!" he said with a feigned expression of innocence that looked so out of place on his face that was usually crafted into a picture of deviance.

"Don't act like you don't know, Malfoy!" she exclaimed, flicking a stubborn tendril of her hair out of her face with a sharp jerk of her head. "You've been stalking me for the past week and I've had enough of it!"

"Stalking? That's quite an over-dramatic word to describe mere coincidences, don't you think?" he replied in his smug drawl. Hermione grit her teeth and shuffled her weight onto her left leg; holding so many chocolate eggs was starting to take a toll on her body.

"Once is a coincidence. Once a day for an entire week, however, is not."

"You say potato…"

Hermione sighed heavily and blew on the infuriating lock of hair that insisted on remaining in her eyes, before fixing the man in front of her with a tired stare.

"Why have you been following me, Malfoy? And don't try and make up some sort of stupid excuse because I swear I'll hex you into next year!"

Draco smirked at her indignant tone and resisted the urge to laugh at her threat. She was a typical Gryffindor, through and through. In all honesty, the witch was right; he had been stalking her. But only because simply approaching her was out of the question; she always thought he was up to something – trying to trick her in some way shape or form. He found it amusing that the thought of him actually _liking _her and wanting to spend time with her had never crossed her mind. For the past week he'd allowed her to yell, scream, shout and call him every name under the sun, just so that she would get all her anger out and then, albeit very slowly, start to build up a tolerance of sorts to him.

But, as with anything in his life, things found a way to become more complicated. And now she wanted an explanation.

The thought of inventing some sort of excuse had occurred to him for a sliver of a second, but he knew that dishonesty wasn't going to do him any favours with _this _particular witch. If he wanted her, he'd have to be honest – as much as it pained him.

"I want you to come to dinner with me."

Silence.

Hermione blinked. Twice.

"Excuse me?"

"I want you to come to dinner with me," he repeated warily, eyeing her carefully behind his grey orbs.

Hermione's face remained blank for a moment longer before she burst into a fit of giggles. Draco frowned as he watched the brunette witch shake uncontrollably with laughter, the Easter eggs in her arms bobbing up and down.

"Merlin Malfoy!" she exclaimed, trying to calm herself down. "That's the funniest thing I've heard all year!"

Draco could feel humiliation begin to bubble within him and he fixed her with an icy glare.

"And what exactly is it about me wanting to take you to dinner that you find so…_amusing_, Granger?"

"You _hate_ me!" she managed to choke out.

"I think you'll find that I don't!" he replied defiantly.

"You do!"

"Don't!"

"_Do_!"

"_Don't_! How can you tell me what I feel?"

Hermione opened her mouth to retort before shutting it abruptly. Her eyes widened and all the mirth was suddenly gone.

"_Feel_?" she repeated softly, disbelief dancing on her face. "Malfoy, do you have feelings for me?"

"How am I supposed to know?" he exploded, completely forgetting that they were in the middle of Diagon Alley on a relatively busy day.

"Well, they're _your_ feelings!" she replied, his raised voice breaking through her dazed state.

"Well, maybe I would know if you accompanied me to dinner?" Draco said in a pleasanter tone, realising that he could use the situation to his advantage.

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"You really thought I'd buy that?" she asked disapprovingly, almost as though she expected better from him. Draco shot her a sheepish grin.

"Worth a try."

Hermione sighed and moved her arms a little so that she could shift the weight of the boxes again.

"Well as fun as this has been, Malfoy, I have to go. Harry and Ron will be waiting-"

"So just agree to go out to dinner with me and I'll leave you in peace!" he interrupted cheerfully, completely intent on getting an answer out of her. She frowned.

"You're blackmailing me into dinner?" she asked in disbelief.

"No, Granger, I'm _asking _you to dinner," he corrected. "There's a difference."

"You say potato…" she quoted dryly, causing him to grin. She was clearly unimpressed, but at least she hadn't pulled her wand out – that had to count for something.

"Come on, Granger. Dinner with me; it won't be that bad!"

"Oh I think it will."

"I promise you'll have fun!" he said persuasively.

"Something tells me that our ideas of fun differ greatly."

"I'll let you choose the restaurant."

"So that you can criticise my choice of cuisine? No thank you."

"I'll be a proper gentleman and pay for everything."

"Cheap shot, Malfoy. You know money doesn't interest me."

"I'll kiss you goodnight!"

"I think I'll pass."

"DAMMIT GRANGER, JUST SAY YES!"

"NO!"

"PLEASE?"

Silence.

Hermione stared at the blond wizard in front of her, mouth open, coffee-coloured eyes ready to pop out of their sockets.

"What?" he asked warily, the shocked expression on her face unnerving him slightly.

"Did you just say please?"

Draco frowned in thought before nodding slowly, unsure of the brunette's sanity.

"You've never said please to me before," she said quietly. Draco realised, with some thought, that she was correct. In fact, it was probably the first time he'd ever been polite towards her – even if he had yelled it.

"Well, that in itself should prove how much I want this," he said sincerely, never breaking eye-contact with her.

Hermione sighed heavily and realised that she didn't have a choice. He wasn't going to leave her alone until she agreed – and it seemed like he actually _wanted _to have dinner with her because he wanted to get to know her, not because he wanted to annoy her.

How bad could dinner with him be? She knew he infuriated her and made her head spin with anger, but he was an intelligent man. His humour was sarcastic, but he was witty, and she appreciated the mature intellect he harboured. She doubted that they'd be able to stay civil and amicable for the entire evening; they were polar opposites after all, but she supposed they could try.

"Ok." She said slowly.

"Ok?" he repeated, his voice hopeful yet sceptical.

Hermione nodded.

"But I'm only doing this to get you to leave me alone! I mean it Malfoy – one dinner and that's it!"

Draco smirked at her and stepped forward so that he was as close as he could be to her with the boxes of chocolate eggs acting as a barrier between them.

"Oh Granger," he said in a light tone. "It's never just one dinner with me."

Hermione would have scolded his arrogance and conceit, but she was entranced by his alluring eyes. _Was there a name for that shade of grey? _She found herself thinking wistfully. Draco smirked triumphantly – he'd manage to render Hermione Granger speechless! Things were finally going his way.

Hermione moved away from him slightly and shuffled uneasily.

"I'll owl you with the details then, Granger!" he said chirpily, basking in his triumphant glory. Hermione rolled her eyes and nodded before walking off. Draco frowned. So after all of that, he didn't even get a goodbye? Hermione Granger had a cold heart.

"Granger…" he started as he reached out and grabbed her arm. Hermione jumped, obviously startled, and dropped the bags of Easter Eggs. She rounded on him with a murderous glare, her face red with anger, and Draco knew that mentioning how beautiful she looked when she was mad was likely to be one of the last things he did as a fully functioning wizard.

"Well…I'll be off then…see you tonight, Granger…!" he murmured quietly, before apparating away.

"I HATE YOU DRACO MALFOY!"

**A/N: **Not my best but I needed a break from revision, and the last thing I wrote was too depressing! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it and I'd love it if you reviewed - even it's to tell me what you didn't like! Thank you! :) xx


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